Connecticut Police Open Fire On Unarmed Black Couple Sitting In Their Car

Protests erupted throughout several Connecticut neighborhoods Friday after police shot at an unarmed Black couple as they sat in their car.

NBC reports, 22-year-old Stephanie Washington and her boyfriend, Paul Witherspoon, were sitting in a car near Yale University when two officers began shooting into the car om April 16.

The surveillance footage reportedly shows, Hamden Police Officer Devin Eaton exit his patrol car and immediately unload his weapon into the red Honda. According to police, the car matched the description of another vehicle involved in an armed robbery. The officers, Washington and Witherspoon, were identified by NBC Connecticut as Black.

Yale University Police Officer Terrance Pollock was reportedly also involved in the incident. While Eaton fired into the car from one side, Pollock fired his weapon from the other side before running away from the scene.

Washington was taken to a hospital is reportedly expected to survive. Witherspoon, was not injured in the shooting, and told reporters that he’ll never forget what he experienced that day.

“I’ve heard gunshots before but it’s a different feeling when somebody’s shooting at you… when the police are shooting at you,” Witherspoon said.

New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said, “this incident betrays police activity gone horribly wrong along the Hamden-New Haven line and now Stephanie, as well as many residents, her family, her friends, must live with the consequences and resulting uncertainty of what was by every definition an unacceptable response,” reports the Associated Press.

Since the shooting, Black Lives Matter demonstrators and Yale students have held multiple protests in New Haven and Hamden. Police have not yet stated if any disciplinary action will be taken against the officers.